Chapter 80: I Like You, I Don't Care What They'll Say

“Creak—”  

“Clack.”  

“Clack.”  

The door was pushed open from the outside, and two clicks of a lighter sounded in the quiet house.  

Ji Xiao saw the flame flicker in her line of sight, jumping once, twice, before finally lowering and appearing right in front of her.  

Surrounded by Aunt Wu and the others, Wei Qingyu walked up to Ji Xiao carrying a birthday cake.  

Looking at the somber-faced girl before her, she spoke in the gentlest voice:  

“Even though it’s very late... happy birthday, Ji Xiao.”  

“Happy birthday, Miss,” the others echoed.  

The candlelight lit up Ji Xiao’s vision, and Wei Qingyu’s eyes, trying hard to curve into a smile, grew larger in her sight.  

Ji Xiao knew Wei Qingyu was sad too.  

She knew everyone had stayed up this late just to wait for her.  

She knew she should smile.  

But she just couldn’t.  

Her carefully painted lips twitched a few times, but no matter how hard she tried, they couldn’t form even a forced smile.  

Looking at Wei Qingyu standing there, all she felt was a sadness that wouldn’t let go.  

“I’m sorry.”

Ji Xiao’s voice shook a little. She went around everyone and went straight upstairs to hide in her room.  

The dark room only had faint light from the figure shelf. Every little figure was looking at the girl full of sadness.  

Ji Xiao buried herself on the bay window full of dolls. The black slip dress still had the blood mark from the mouthful she spat just now.  

Half an hour ago, Qiao Ni sent her the news that Qi Qi passed.  

Just a few simple words pressed on Ji Xiao so she could not breathe.  

Even adding the more than twenty years in her first world, she never thought death would one day be this close.  

This real.  

The night was quiet. Little bugs hid in the grass and chirped.  

The party scene in the backyard was not cleaned up. It still blinked with lights.  

Ji Xiao stared at a balloon far away shaking in the wind. The doll in her hand was twisted out of shape from her grip.  

Tears fell from her eyes. They went into her mouth and mixed with the blood taste she had not wiped. It turned very bitter.  

From what An Cen told her about the pain Qi Qi had these days, a heavy guilt pressed on her heart.  

Is it that if she never touched Qi Qi’s fate, she would not have eaten so much pain and taken so much hurt these days?  

Is it that she not only could not change the end of the story, but also made the one she changed get even harder punishment from fate?  

She thought when she went inside the book, she became the protagonist 

After saving her own life, she still dreamed of saving her friend and getting love.  

“To hell with that.”  

Ji Xiao spoke with an angry cry, wiping her tears with her elbow.  

How could such luck come to her? She was just an unlucky person.  

She came to this other world holding a hell script. No golden finger. No system cheat.  

In this strange world, she struggled hard. She could only make her own days a little better, but she could change nothing else.  

Instead, because she stepped in, things would get even worse.  

Dark clouds slowly covered the moonlight, taking away the light in Ji Xiao’s eyes.  

Through her teary eyes, Ji Xiao looked at the box on the desk. One thing that made her feel even more hopeless came into her mind.  

—She could not change the story anymore. She could not let Wei Qingyu become the second Qi Qi.  

The cabinet with the figure in the middle was slowly opened. Between No.27 and the first edition, she placed the crystal glass jar full of stars.  

The carefully polished jar reflected the warm yellow light above, like fire slowly burning in the girl’s eyes.  

Closing the cabinet door felt even heavier than opening it.  

Ji Xiao looked with heavy eyes at the empty velvet box beside it. She finally understood the mixed feelings the original owner had when putting away everything related to Wei Qingyu, asking her most loved figure to guard it.

She also really wanted to like her.  

But now she doesn't dare anymore.  

“Knock, knock.”  

Two knocks sounded in the quiet room. Ji Xiao looked at the door and could almost tell who was standing outside.  

“Ji Xiao, can I come in?” Wei Qingyu’s voice came as she expected.  

That voice was as calm as always, yet held the same gentleness that belonged only to Ji Xiao.  

Wei Qingyu should have been the person Ji Xiao needed most right now, but she didn’t dare get close anymore.  

Standing in front of the figure cabinet by the door, Ji Xiao spoke in a hoarse voice, “I’m already asleep. Go back.”  

Wei Qingyu looked at the shadow in the door gap blocking the light and said again, “I know you’re very sad right now. Open the door. Let me stay with you, okay?”  

Surrounded by loneliness and weakness, Ji Xiao’s heart was deeply moved by this sentence from Wei Qingyu.  

She wanted so badly to run up and hug her, to ask for a bit of warmth.  

But she couldn’t anymore.  

Ji Xiao looked heavily at the doorknob in her sight and forced herself to refuse, “I’m fine now. Go.”  

Even though Ji Xiao tried to sound calm, her trembling voice didn’t sound fine at all.

Wei Qingyu stood in front of the door, her voice stubborn, “No. If you don’t open the door, I’m not leaving.”  

She knew Ji Xiao had just lost her best friend. Right now was when she needed someone the most.  

Other than herself, she didn’t want anyone else to be the one to walk Ji Xiao out of this low point. She also couldn’t think of anyone else who could.  

The stars in the night sky connected in pairs into a wide patch.  

But they only had each other.  

“Go, Wei Qingyu.” Ji Xiao forced down her sadness and spoke to the person outside, “It’s late. Don’t you have to go to the library tomorrow?”  

Wei Qingyu still refused to leave, “I’m not going. If you don’t open the door, I’ll just stay here with you.”  

When her voice fell, the room returned to quiet again. The mint scent that belonged to Wei Qingyu drifted in through the gap in the door, faint yet never fading.  

Ji Xiao looked heavily at the door in her sight, as if she could see the expression on Wei Qingyu’s face behind it.  

The girl’s long hair fell over the side of her face, and her turquoise eyes held lonely sadness.  

She was already thin. The emptier the hallway was, the more it made her look all alone in the world.  

Ji Xiao didn’t even know what she should do right now, or what she was supposed to do.  

That unshakable sadness wrapped around her heart. And the one who could comfort her the most… had become a gentleness she could never touch again in her life.

She couldn’t have any more progress with her.  

She couldn’t let Wei Qingyu follow Qi Qi’s path again…  

“Creak.”  

A beam of light came with the sound of the door opening, lighting up in Wei Qingyu’s sight.  

Ji Xiao stood in front of her with a gloomy face.  

Just when Wei Qingyu was about to say something, Ji Xiao cut her off, “Now you’ve seen me. Go back and sleep. It’s late.”  

Wei Qingyu froze when she heard this.  

She looked at Ji Xiao in front of her, familiar yet strange.  

It was like something she didn’t know had happened to Ji Xiao. Even the peach brandy smell of pheromones from her body had lost that high-spirited feeling.  

“Wei Qingyu, we are an Alpha and an Omega. Staying together in the middle of the night is not proper. They will gossip about you.”  

Ji Xiao’s voice was soft, gentle yet cruel, trying to draw a line with Wei Qingyu in this way.  

Source: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5896087
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.

The dark clouds covered the moon completely. In the quiet hallway came the sound of two hearts breaking.  

Wei Qingyu’s gaze was deep. In her sight was always only Ji Xiao.  

She could see the tear marks at the end of Ji Xiao’s eyes still not wiped clean. The broken ends reflected a fragile light.  

She rejected her again and again with cruelty, yet her tone and voice were full of careful gentleness.

The lights from the hallway and the room mixed between them. In Wei Qingyu’s sight, they turned into a fragile river of stars, separating the two.  

Even though they both stood still, Wei Qingyu felt Ji Xiao was getting farther and farther from her, like in the next second Ji Xiao would vanish from her world without a word.  

“Be good. Go back,” Ji Xiao said with a hard heart, her hand on the doorknob at the side, ready to close the door.  

“I don’t care!”  

In the silent hallway, Wei Qingyu’s slightly emotional voice rang out.  

All the light fell on this girl, making that voice sound even more firm.  

Ji Xiao’s heart skipped a beat. Her hand holding the doorknob tightened.  

A pale, slender arm appeared in her sight. The faint blue veins lifted the delicate skin.  

Wind rose from the window. The girl’s uneven breath, carrying the excited mint smell, landed at Ji Xiao’s nose tip.  

Wei Qingyu stepped quickly in front of her, blocking the door in Ji Xiao’s hand.  

The two were so close.  

Wei Qingyu held the door tight, her eyes staring straight at Ji Xiao. “I like you. I don’t care what they’ll say!”

Author's Note:

Wu wu wu